Do the think the MBA is faster than a MBP?

No...not the current gen MBP.

I have a 2008 unibody MBP 15 inch, with the 2.53 ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB ram, and nvidia 9400/9600 video card(s).

It's really on its last legs, and I'm looking to get something newer. I'm divided between the new i7 MBP and a 13 inch MBA. Do you think the 13 inch MBA is as fast or faster than my current MBP?

I'm not a power user. I never do video editing, Photoshop, video encoding, gaming etc...none of that heavy stuff. Ever.

I only do Safari multiple tabs, itunes, Office applications, watching online TV, watching movies, stuff like that.

Lets put it this way...if my current MBP didn't have hardware issues that it currently has, I'd be happy with the performance.

 

I do believe it will be faster due to the SSD.

 

^^^Yep. The SSD will affect you much more obviously than the CPU. Any processor from the last few years can handle your usage just fine. i7 (even an i5) would be major overkill for you.

 

If your needs are so modest, then why get a new laptop in the first place? A 2008 MBP could probably use a new battery after 4 years of use, but other than that it should still be a capable machine.

 

I dunno, my 2008 MBP is having numerous little problems right now that all scream "long in the tooth." Just because the physical integrity of the case is awesome, doesn't mean the computer doesn't age.

 

OP could try cleaning out his laptop with compressed air and performing a little physical maintenance on it.

Or perhaps putting a lightweight Linux distro on it (something like Debian with Lubuntu?) to speed it up.

 

I have cleaned it, used air, cleared dust etc. I do it once a month.

I've upgraded the hard drive, the ram, bought a new battery less than a year ago, and have taken care of it.

I'm suffering from random cold freezes, graphics issues, and a non functional optical drive.

I've reformatted, restored all parts to stock, and still the problems persist. I'm out of warantee, and as my main work and personal computer, I think it's time to get something newer...

Just can't decide! The difference in price is almost $800!

 

I've cleaned mine out with compressed air and replaced the HDD. It lowered temps slightly but didn't solve any of the myriad "aging computer" issues it has. My MBP is the same vintage as the original poster's. These machines were not designed to last a decade and be as good as new ten years later. And they don't. They age just like any other laptop. Just because the case doesn't creak doesn't mean the computer isn't aging.

 

See my post above. Our 2008 MBPs are almost identical in age and are having similar issues. MBPs age just like any other laptop, and three years old is pretty old in consumer laptop years. I also just bought a new machine (check the sig).

For the work you describe doing, the speed of a SSD should make up for the slower CPU. And the new MBA 13 is a really, really nice machine in person. I'd go with the MBA 13 if you don't need an onboard optical drive.

 

Even the processor in the 13" MBA is going to be faster than the C2D from the 2008 MBP line. I think that, overall, the 13" MBA was even beating out many of the 2010 MBP models as well. Either way, it should be a noticeable jump in performance due to both the processor and SSD.

This brings up an interesting side note in that electronics (handheld gadgets, notebooks, desktops, etc.) just aren't built to last like they used to be. A $1500 notebook is going to get about 3-4 years of solid use out of it now whereas I have a few $1500 notebooks from 2000 and 2003 that still run fine (aside from their batteries being bad). Even high end electronics aren't built to last like they used to. The U.S. (since I can't comment on other countries) has turned into a technological society that buys something new and ends up replacing it a few years down the line. There are some people who fall out of this who actually buy electronics expecting them to last 5 years and there are others who buy something new every single year. For the most part though (from what I have observed and read in resorts), most people cycle their heavily used gadgets. I had this conversation with someone just the other day. Her husband wants a new smartphone and has a rather craptacular Nokia "smartphone" that is now two years old. Their contract is coming up and he wants to renew it while getting an Android smartphone. She asked "why does he need a new phone, isn't the two year old one still good?" He commented that his phone was now doing weird things like now vibrating when he receives a call and that its OS has had a known bug for a while now but he can't update his phone. I further had to explain to her and devices like this aren't meant to last as long as they used to.

In reality, a well taken care of MBP can last for a long, long time but the whole ~3 year lifespan is also pretty common. Macs are "high end" computers no different than other similar models from other companies. One should not buy a MBP and expect it to last for 5 years.

 

I agree entirely with this. My six-year-old Powerbook G4 is probably more stable than my three-year-old MacBook Pro. Heck, even my decade-old Dell Inspiron still runs, albeit at a snail's pace. My Macbook Pro 15 is the most expensive machine I've ever owned, and it's aged the fastest of any machine I've ever owned.

MacBook Airs are priced to make sense on a two-year replacement cycle. Competitors to the MacBook Pro 15 and 17 are priced to make sense on a two-year replacement cycle (for example, my new Vaio F cost a mere $1249 with a 2.2 GHz i7, a 540M, and a high-contrast 1080p 16.4" matte screen). Unfortunately, Apple's MBP 15 and 17 are not currently priced to make sense on a two-year replacement cycle. That's another thing that weighs heavily in favor of the MBA 13 for the original poster.

 

I bought the macbook air 13 a few days ago, and I've been considering exchanging it for a pro 13, since best buy would do it for free. But damn is this ssd fast, 15 second boot, applications open instantly, and the whole laptop closed is thinner than my alienware m14x screen lid. The only thing I dont like about it is that it doesn't quite feel like a computer, feels more to me as an ipad with a keyboard. But I still love it, and I will probably keep it. I guess it's just that I've always wanted a pro.

But I would say the air overall is faster than the pro. The standard 5400 rpm hdd is a huge bottle neck to any computer, even my alienware with a quad core i7 gets bogged down by a 7200 rpm drive at some points. Maybe the pro might outperform the air in cpu intensive programs, but in overall speed, the mac air is amazing. And who uses cd's anymore? I'd love to see a new macbook pro without a cd drive, basically a thicker air with the mbp's full fledged processor

 

^^^ Keep the MBA. The MBP 13 isn't going to be any better for day-to-day tasks than the MBA is, it doesn't have as good of a screen or as cool of a form factor, and you already have the M14x for power use.

 

I bought a 13-inch base model MBA yesterday. Compared to my 13-inch MBP, this thing is blazing fast. I cold booted them both at the same time, and I was able to log in to the Air, and shut it down, all while the Pro was still at the Apple/spinning gear screen.

 

I think Apple will offer SSDs standard on the next wave of MBPs, it makes no sense at all to have a Pro being overperformed by an Air.

 

The Air isn't really beating out the Pro line in terms of performance. By default, the Air is booting OS X and loading programs faster. Everything else is going to be faster even on a baseline 13" MBP. That includes processor intensive programs, media encoding, programs that take up large amounts of RAM (since the MBP line can handle up to 8GB of RAM while the MBA is locked at 4GB), multi-tasking, etc. However, putting an SSD in a MBP (especially a new model which will be faster than the SSDs Apple puts in the Airs) will solve that. It doesn't really mean much for the average consumer as either line is going to be more than powerful enough.

Still, the MBAs are not outperforming the MBPs in overall tests. They are better in a few areas (unless one orders a MBP from Apple with an SSD drive or installs one themselves) but not overall.

 

What exactly are these problems? I'm rather curious to know whether the unibody MBPs tend to degrade in a consistent manner.

 

the real performance gain is when you come from a core 2 duo to the new mac air. thats where you see the largest jump. if you compare it to a i5 or i7 macbook pro its only beating the pro in the data access tests. this is easily fixed by adding a ssd to the i5 or i7 mac pro and it will beat the air in pretty much all tests.

The new mac air is really powerful. Its double that what it was. It smokes most core 2 duos. But to say its overall faster then a 2011 macbook pro just isnt true. In the few tests that it does, the pro can be upgraded in that area to fix it.

 

I checked out both models today at Best Buy and I'll be honest, it's really a toss up between the two.

I think I'm going to go with the Air and use it for a week, and exchange it for the 15" Pro if need be.

 

The battery has needed replacing. The HDD has needed replacing. I get flashing black areas of the screen when in integrated graphics mode more and more frequently (i.e., the top third of the screen will turn all black for a tenth of a second then revert to normal). When I first start up, something mechanical inside sounds like an idling diesel engine for the first 5-10 minutes. The MagSafe power adapter needs a couple of tries before it gets a good connection. The OS has, on several occasions recently, glitched out resulting in intermittent loss of both the dock and also the top menu (this is not one discrete program that has this problem, but the OS itself) until I restart the computer. Multifunction operation of the trackpad is not as consistent as it used to be. The cooling fan will not automatically spin faster than 2750 rpm, regardless of how high internal temperatures are and how high they're climbing; I have to use SMC fan control to manually turn them up to control heat. Even while web browsing, the computer runs at about 70 degrees celsius unless I manually dial up the fans. The front half of the fringe covering the optical drive slot came unglued and fell out.

Like I said, numerous little problems. Maybe each individual one can be explained away, but the sum of which point towards "long in the tooth."